A flood early warning system for southern Africa

Sizeable areas of the Southern African Region experienced widespread flooding in 2000. Deployment of hydrologic models can help reduce the human and economic losses in the regions by providing improved monitoring and forecast information to guide relief activities. In this study, we describe a hydrologic model developed for wide-area flood risk monitoring for the Southern African region. The model is forced by daily estimates of rainfall and evapotranspiration derived from remotely sensed data and assimilation fields. Model predictive skills were verified with data observed stream flow data from locations within the Limpopo basin. The model performed well in simulating the timing and magnitude of the stream flow during a recent episode of flooding in Mozambique in 2000.